Gone Phishing

by Bowes, K T

  Dane shook his head and Edgar’s eyebrows shot into his hair. “You should know by now, sir; your daughter does what she likes.”

  Sophia’s father pointed towards the hallway, his colour changing to an angry red. “Get out of my house, kid. I asked you nice first time; second time I throw you out.”

  Dane heaved out a sigh of resignation and dropped onto the sofa near the ranch slider. “I’ll wait here for a second, Soph.” He glared at Edgar in warning. “I used to think you were such a nice guy,” he said.

  Edgar took a step forward, halted by the sight of Melody barrelling along the hallway towards him, her stilettos abandoned at the front door and pink toenails standing out against the harsh wooden floor. “Are you coming?” she asked Sophia with a smile, her jovial expression fading as she saw Edgar’s shape leaning over Dane.

  “What’s going on?” Edgar demanded as Sophia stood back and made room for their guest. He stared at the newcomer, his face a mask of confusion.

  “Dad,” Sophia said, her tone heavy. “I’m surprised by how little pleasure this gives me, but meet Melody Foxhall, your online girlfriend. She’s excited to meet you.”

  “Melody!” Edgar took a step forward, his face breaking into a sheepish grin. “You’re here? Wow!” He held out his arms to her, oblivious of how the woman shrank behind Sophia. “We spoke less than an hour ago.” His face creased into a happy grin. “Brilliant. This is one hell of a surprise.”

  Sophia watched the dismay in her father’s face as Melody went to stand next to Dane. “She doesn’t know you, Dad. She’s the real Melody Foxhall, not the one you’ve been speaking with.”

  Edgar put his hands up to the sides of his face and shook his head. “No! We spoke earlier, remember? I’ve got your birthday present; the bracelet you wanted.” He appealed to Melody in desperation, reality already crowding in and bringing humiliation with it. The lack of recognition in Melody’s face compounded the awful sense of fear and he tried harder. “We’re meeting up once the house is sold; I’m buying into the garage.”

  Melody shook her head. “I don’t know you. I’ve never spoken to you, online or off. My birthday is four months away and I certainly don’t need financial help with my garage, thanks. Someone else hacked my Facebook profile and she’s duped you.” Her expression became sad. “I wanted to meet you though, Edgar. I need you to listen to what I have to say.”

  He turned to face her, taking in the smart business suit, hour-glass figure and curled blonde locks resting against her breasts. His eyes looked hopeful and Sophia shook her head, reading his mind and knowing he waited for Melody to take it all back and tell him she’d played a rotten joke on him. She didn’t, driving a knife deep into his psyche on Sophia’s behalf. Edgar’s lips parted in expectation and Melody delivered her blow. “Shame on you!” she spat. “What kind of man abandons his daughter for someone he never met? What kind of father gives her choices she can’t make at the most crucial time of her life?” Melody took a step forward and Sophia moved nearer to Dane, awe inspired by the passion and authority in the businesswoman’s delivery. “Men like you make me sick!” she shouted, her volume rising in unison with her anger levels. “This girl loved you so much that she travelled eight hundred kilometres in two days to get to the bottom of a lie so unbelievable that a group of teenage kids saw through it!” The pink hue in her cheeks made Melody even more stunning and Edgar gulped.

  Sophia watched a range of emotions move through his eyes from hope to dismay to anger and back to a deep sense of foolishness. She edged closer to Dane until her legs touched his and he opened his arms and let her sink into his lap. His firm fingers around her waist offered sanctuary. Her phone lay next to him on the sofa.

  Melody kept going, exorcising her own rage and betrayal. “You don’t deserve this kid!” She jabbed a finger at Edgar’s chest, making contact. Sophia watched her body tense and her back grow rigid, detecting tears in her voice. “You don’t think, do you? Racing boats or hooking up with con artists, you’re all the same. You never think about the kids!” Melody lost control and slammed her fists into Edgar’s chest, forcing him to take a step backwards in alarm. He held his hands out in front of him and backed away.

  Dane pitched Sophia off his knee and lurched for Melody as she brought her fists back to take another swipe at Edgar. “Enough,” he said with quiet authority, putting his arm around her and turning her shaking body away from Sophia’s father. “Come on,” he said, motioning to Sophia. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Melody turned and levelled her eyes at Edgar, her face filled with fury. She jabbed a finger towards Sophia. “I saw the state of her, you moron! You did that to her! You don’t deserve a beautiful kid like Sophia; it’s obvious she loves you more than you do her.” She finished and allowed Dane to lead her downstairs to the front door, where she retrieved her shoes from the mat. Sophia followed, oozing waves of pity for herself and for the strong woman who summed up her life in two pathetic sentences.

  “This isn’t right.” Edgar recovered control and stood at the top of the stairs, his face white and mouth gaping. “I’ll talk to her on Facebook right now. I can clear this misunderstanding up.”

  Dane held Sophia’s phone aloft in his hand while Melody snatched up her bag. She walked into the sunshine, pausing on the front steps to gasp a lungful of air. “You can’t,” Dane replied and shook the device, a sad smile on his lips. “I just deleted your profile.”

  Edgar’s eyes widened in rage and his chest filled to capacity. He swore at Dane and Sophia stepped between them as he travelled down the stairs at speed. “Don’t you touch him!” she spat, her nose close to Edgar’s chin.

  Edgar leaned over her and gave Dane a victorious grin. “I can reactivate it, dummy! Someone at work did it with theirs last week.” His fists balled at his sides.

  Dane shrugged. “You do that, Edgar. Trouble is, I’m watching Melody’s profile too and I’ve made it secret and blocked you. You won’t find her even if you try. It also means you can’t warn her.”

  “Warn her about what?” Edgar’s face paled to the colour of his white shirt. “Warn her about what?” he shouted after Dane.

  Chapter 38

  Fathers

  Melody sat in the back of Dane’s car and cried silent tears. The teens glanced at one another with wide eyes. At the motel she climbed out and dragged her expensive handbag after her, not waiting for them to follow. Dane put the handbrake on and pursed his lips. “What the hell was that about?”

  Sophia shook her head and winced. “She yelled something about boats. Maybe she’s angry at her husband for dying.”

  Dane nodded and raised his eyebrows. “Do you think it put Edgar off her?” He ducked as Sophia slapped at his thigh.

  “Don’t be mean. She’s devastated. Why did you bring her in the house?”

  “I didn’t!” He looked indignant. “I went to get you and saw his truck parked up the road. I realised there might be trouble, so I came in after you. He left the front door unlocked.”

  “He never does that.” Sophia looked confused. Then she rolled her eyes and shook her head. “He’s got a viewing. That’s why he’s home at lunchtime. A buyer wants to see the house.”

  Dane ran the backs of his fingers down her cheek and his eyes narrowed with sympathy. “Geez, I’m sorry, Soph. That makes sense. Do you think he’ll go through with it now?”

  She shrugged. “I bet he’ll fake sick at work and spend the afternoon working out how to recreate his Facebook profile.”

  “He managed it once so it shouldn’t be too hard.” Dane watched Melody unlock the motel apartment door and walk inside. “What I’ve done will make Melody’s profile a whole lot harder to find.”

  “He’ll find it harder still with no laptop.” Sophia’s lips quirked upwards and Dane widened his eyes in surprise.

  “You little minx. What if he buys one?”

  She snorted. “Can you imagine Edgar spending the afternoon choosing a laptop and then setting i
t up by himself? He could get a new phone; I know he’s been talking about it.” She closed her eyes and sighed. “I don’t care. That was a genius move, deleting his profile and then taking hers over.”

  Dane opened his mouth to speak but Sophia’s face showed sudden panic. “What if he rings her?”

  “He’s not allowed.” He raised an eyebrow and cocked his head at her. “It’s interesting how she controls him.” Dane chewed his lip. “Edgar’s not allowed to message her first. She always writes the first message and sometimes he waits days for it to come. It’s the same with phone calls. He’s absolutely not allowed to ring her.”

  “Why?” Sophia shook her head. “Why the control?”

  Dane jerked his head towards the motel room. “Because she needs to avoid any risk of the real Melody hopping onto her own Facebook page and seeing a random, unopened message and asking Edgar who he is. If the catfish writes the first message, she can delete it and avoid Melody stumbling across it. Edgar will still see it though. It’s the same when they do audio calls through Facebook. I’ve gone back and found a few of those. They show up with a box saying when the call started and finished. She can’t let Edgar ring her because he’ll pick risky times without realising. How weird would it be if Melody’s Facebook served a call while she’s at work?”

  “But what if Melody logged on while they were chatting, anyway? She’d see them messaging.”

  Dane shrugged. “Yeah, but she hasn’t so far. It’s clear her son set it up for her at work and that’s where she kept it. She doesn’t have it on her phone or anywhere else. After a few months the catfish reckoned she must be safe and avoided work hours.”

  Sophia shook her head and exhaled a huge sigh. “But remember that day Edgar came home needing the laptop? What happened then?”

  Dane pulled a face and shook his head. “Yeah, that was a bad one. You gave him the laptop when you came out to meet me at Declan’s and Edgar messaged the catfish and said he was glad to hear from her because he’d been getting worried. He let slip he’d been thinking of messaging her during the day and she went loco. Said if he ever did that it was over.”

  “What a bloody mess! What reason did she give?”

  “None, Soph. He’s got it so bad he just does as he’s told.” Dane blinked and gave her a smile. “Be over tomorrow though, babe. I can’t wait.” He glanced in the mirror at himself and pushed a hand through his hair. “I need to deal with this,” he said, pouting and blowing himself a kiss to make Sophia laugh. The rear-view mirror popped off the windscreen and hit the dashboard on the way down, the plastic casing flying in three different directions. “Oh, bugger!” Dane grumbled. “I think my dad’s car’s had enough.”

  Inside the apartment, Melody brewed herself coffee in a cafetiere, clattering around in the kitchenette. Dane wheeled her suitcase over the threshold and stood it up by the double bed. “This is nice,” he said, looking around. “Really flash.”

  “You can take the double bed,” Melody sighed, her voice heavy. “I’ll take the twin room through there.”

  Dane opened his mouth to speak. “Oh, no, we thought we’d meet you at the airport tomorrow.”

  Sophia shook her head. “Hey, why don’t you go for that haircut,” she said, giving him a perceptive look. “You should talk to Ellen too and explain what’s happening.”

  “Okay.” He stepped backwards through the open door, pointing outside over his shoulder. “I’ll fetch your gear out of the car and pick mine up at home. We’ll take my car to the airport and leave yours at Bob’s.” Dane jerked his head in Melody’s direction and Sophia nodded and waved him away, widening her eyes at him. He faked understanding, clueless as he slid the door closed behind him and strolled across to his car with his hands in his pockets.

  “That smells good.” Sophia fetched two mugs from the overhead cupboard and placed them side by side. “Thanks for nailing my father back there. It felt good to watch him on the receiving end for a change.”

  “He hits you?” Melody drew her lips back in a grimace and Sophia rushed to change her understanding.

  “Gosh, no! He’s behaved nasty this last couple of months but not violent. Last week when I tried to tell him about the catfish he went a bit wild and scared me but I’d never seen him like that before.”

  Melody nodded. “That’s okay then.” She poured coffee and struggled to open the milk sachets with her long fingernails. “I’ve rescheduled my meeting to the morning with this other dealer but then we’ll leave for the airport straight afterwards. I didn’t mean for you to stay here but it’s the best plan now. You can’t stay there with your father and if Dane can square it at the other place, it gives us time to plan for tomorrow.” She smiled. “Your boyfriend thinks on his feet, doesn’t he? He takes everything in his stride. He reminds me of my husband.”

  “Did your husband let you down?” Sophia asked, watching Melody pour the dribble of milk into the mugs. “I know you wanted to talk to Edgar, but I didn’t expect you to hit him.”

  She shook her head. “No. I loved my husband, but he raced speed boats for a living. He promised he’d stop once we had Riley but then couldn’t live without the thrill.” She shook her hair behind her shoulders and stared at a spot on the ceiling. “His boat exploded on a practice run the day after Riley’s fourth birthday and my father-in-law died of heart failure the following week. I stepped into their family garage as a diversion from the grief and my mother-in-law minded my son so I could work and feed the three of us. It helped both of us in different ways.” Her eyes strayed to Sophia’s face, the expression raw behind the fading fake confidence. “I thought my husband a selfish man until today,” she said, her jaw working hard beneath the skin. “I felt so angry at him for choosing danger over being a father. And then I stood there looking at your dad and I wanted to hurt him for his stupidity. He has the opportunity to enjoy something special with you and he’s throwing it away for a woman he’s never met. My Stirling died at work, earning a living and fulfilling his sponsorship commitments. He put food on our table with a sport he loved and I saw it differently today. Your dad’s an idiot and I’ve done Stirling a huge disservice all these years by ranking him with a man like that.”

  Sophia stared at the brown carpet, her heart breaking in her chest. Melody’s pain mingled with hers and the other woman’s arms felt welcome around her shoulders. “Sorry, Soph,” Melody whispered. “Sorry your dad’s a total twat!”

  Chapter 39

  Air Time

  Dane acted like an excited five-year-old at the airport, examining everything with great interest and watching each small detail with extreme concentration. “I’ve never been on a plane,” he said for the twentieth time as they waited at their gate for boarding. “This is amazing.”

  Melody smiled like a benevolent aunt and winked at Sophia. “I didn’t imagine this trip to be so much fun.”

  “Yeah.” Dane watched the airline staff unclip the tape to allow passengers through and bounced to his feet, dragging his rucksack onto his shoulder. He snatched up Sophia’s bag and Melody’s suitcase and powered towards the gate. The women ran to keep up with him. He beamed at the lady checking tickets. “I’ve never been on a plane before,” he told her and she smiled and waved him through.

  “This is incredible,” Dane said as they crossed the tarmac and climbed the stairs. “This is bloody fantastic,” he said as they mounted the thin staircase into the body of the plane. “That’s clever,” he said, admiring the overhead luggage lockers. “This is sick!” he exclaimed, lifting the blind on his window and peering out onto the bright Hamilton morning.

  Sophia took the aisle seat and allowed him to describe everything in his brand of technicolour and Melody flicked out her magazine across the aisle and shook her head with amusement. The steward helped them belt themselves in and took his seat for take-off. Sophia’s body stiffened as she felt a gaze boring into her face. She sought it and located a man a few seats ahead, who kept turning around and peering at her. A
strange warning prickle touched the back of her spine but Dane leaned over and whispered in her ear, his fingers snaking around hers. “This is weird.” His change in tone alerted her to his discomfort and she turned within the restrictive seat belt and stared at him.

  “What’s the matter?”

  “I’ve changed my mind. I don’t like it anymore.”

  The engines roared and the plane taxied for take-off. Dane’s blue eyes opened wide in fear. “I want to get off!” he hissed, scrabbling at his seat belt.

  “You can’t!” Sophia put her left hand across his tense stomach muscles and held him there, knowing if he flipped she couldn’t hold him. She leaned close to his shoulder and saw his blue irises lose their hue and change to a glittering azure. His pupils increased in size, almost obscuring them. “You nicked the plates from Edgar’s place didn’t you?” She kept her tone accusatory and saw Dane falter, his mind going elsewhere.

  “What?”

  “The plates from the ute at Edgar’s sale yard, you nicked them?”

  The speed of the plane increased with a familiar bunched up sensation, as though the space beneath Sophia’s seat contained all the power. Dane squirmed in discomfort and his left hand grappled for her arm while the right dug into the arm rest and his knuckles turned white. “It’s a tube of toothpaste!” he hissed, his chest heaving. “It’s a fricken’ big tube of toothpaste and it’s gonna blow.”

  Sophia shot a nervous glance sideways at Melody, who stared through the window and ignored her male seat companion’s attempts to engage her in conversation. Dane looked sickly and ashen, beads of sweat breaking out on his forehead. The plane wheels left the tarmac and the structure shuddered as the wheels retracted and shut themselves under the wings. “Tell me the truth,” Sophia insisted, pinching Dane’s thigh.

  The look of scandal he gave her was enough to make her laugh out loud and his jaw dropped at the exhilarating sense of soaring. He turned sideways and peered through the window at the disappearing city of Hamilton in the far distance, the airport below and the abundance of blue and green in every available direction. The plane banked and headed south, Dane’s fingertips pressed white against the window and his nose touching the glass. The seatbelt strained against his eagerness and Sophia shook her head and rested her hand in the centre of his back, feeling the bunched muscle either side of his spine. “Who knew?” she muttered to herself, tasting the childlike fragility which still hung around them and reduced Dane to little more than a frightened kid like Will. The similarities to the wide-eyed, permanently terrified boy seemed exacerbated and with the bravado stripped away, Sophia saw Dane’s vulnerability.